1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a connector housing feeding mechanism, and more particularly, to a connector housing feeding mechanism which can be most suitably used for the terminal inserting process for an electric wire assembly constituting a wiring harness.
2. Description of the Related Art
The manufacturing processes of a wiring harness constructed by assembling a plurality of coated electric wires include the measuring process for measuring and cutting an electric wire, the stripping process for stripping an end of the electric wire, the terminal crimping process for crimping a terminal on a conductor in the end of the stripped electric wire, the terminal connecting process for connecting the electric wire to a connector housing through the terminal, and the like.
The terminal connecting process has been conventionally carried out using a connecting apparatus. Such a connecting apparatus is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 63-123082.
The connecting apparatus in the prior art comprises a terminal inserting mechanism and a housing feeding mechanism. The terminal inserting mechanism cramps an end of an electric wire and a terminal crimped on the end. On the other hand, the housing feeding mechanism carries a lot of connector housings and juxtaposes the connector housings in a horizontal direction. The connecting apparatus sequentially inserts the end of the electric wire and the terminal which are cramped into the connector housings carried by the housing feeding mechanism.
The conventional housing feeding mechanism comprises a housing carrying member for horizontally juxtaposing a plurality of connector housings. The housing carrying member is supported by a supporting member. This supporting member displaces the connector housings carried by the housing carrying member, together with the housing carrying member, to a terminal inserting position. The conventional supporting member is embodied by an index table which is square in plane view. The housing carrying member is mounted on each of the side surfaces of the index table. In this case, the direction in which the connector housings are juxtaposed is a direction along each of the sides, that is, the side surface of the index table. The index table is intermittently rotated for each angle of 90.degree. around a vertical axis. In a first stop position, the connector housing is carried by the housing carrying member. In the subsequent second stop position, the connector housing carried by the housing carrying member waits. In the subsequent third stop position, a terminal is inserted into the connector housing. In the subsequent fourth stop position, the connector housing into which the terminal is inserted is removed from the housing carrying member and gathered.
The rotation of the index table is controlled by so-called teaching work. The teaching work is to input position information of the connector housing into a computer of a controller for each housing carrying member. Because the conventional housing feeding mechanism has four housing carrying members, the teaching work is performed four times.
In the conventional housing feeding mechanism, the index table which is square in plane view is rotated around the vertical axis, that is, an axis intersecting the direction in which the connector housings are juxtaposed. Consequently, the diagonal line of the index table would at least be the diameter with respect to the rotation of the index table. As a result of this, as the larger the number of connector housings and therefore the overall length of the juxtaposed connector housings are, then the greater the inertia that is developed in the index table in a direction in which the index table rotates. Such inertia causes an undue increase in size of the connecting apparatus and consequently in cost.
Furthermore, four housing carrying members corresponding to the respective sides of the index table are required. This causes an increase in cost because the number of jigs disposed in the housing carrying members is large.
Additionally, in the conventional connecting apparatus, the four housing carrying members are employed. Therefore, the teaching work must be performed four times, which takes a lot of time and labor.
Accordingly, what is really needed is an efficient housing feeding mechanism capable of miniaturizing the connecting apparatus.